Dream of the Rood and Ruthwell Cross

Dream of the Rood and Ruthwell Cross

The Dream of the Rood is a very religious poem written in Old English Literature. Author remains unknown until this present day. Many scholars have guessed that possible authors may have been the Anglo-Saxon Christian poets Caedmon and Cynewulf. This fine poem is found in a late tenth-century manuscript located in Vercelli, Italy. This poem has been an intriguing example of the genre of poetry. The poem has become so well known because its scripts have been found in one of the famous stone carving well known as The Ruthwell Cross.

The Ruthwell Cross is 18 feet high and contains 15 lines of this poem carved in runic script, which stands at Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, near the shore of the Solway, beyond the western end of England's border with Scotland (Alexander 217). The cross is as well known as the "preaching cross" because it is covered with Biblical scenes sculpted. Anglo Saxons back then did not know how to read so they would guide themselves with figures such as the cross carved scenes hoping this would turn them into believing in Christianity. The Ruthwell Cross stood for a thousand years at Ruthwell, until it was dismantled and defaced by order of the General Assembly of the Kirk (218). The carvings on this cross has a lot of biblical meaning as Alexander describes in his book such as one of the carvings is the healing of the man born blind, Mary Magdalena wiping with hair the feet of a Savior who blesses with one hand and in the other holds a book. One of the other carvings is the Visitation an archer shooting a bird, the meaning of which is disputed. Around each panel is a Latin text in Roman lettering, except the Visitation has its Latin texts in runes. All this beautiful scenes have a theme the acknowledgment by his creation of Christ the Savior (218). On the side panels of the Ruthwell Cross which are cut in runic script passages from The Dream of the Rood. The poem is a vision of the Cross, in which the Cross speaks (219).

The Dream of the Rood is a poem in which the narrator has a dream. At first the narrator sees the tree in how beautiful it is covered with precious gems and jewelry. While the narrator analyzes the beauty of the tree he sees a stain of blood (Bradley 160). Then he sees the enemy coming to cut down the tree for a criminal to be crucified, but it is Christ the savior to be crucified (161). The dream of the narrator was about the crucifixation of Christ the Savior. The dream showed him how Christ would die in the cross. It states how the Lord and the Cross become one as victors taking on insurmountable pain for the salvation of mankind (108). The Lord and the Cross both suffer by nails being pierced, mocked and tortured and at the end just like Christ our Savior the Cross is resurrected and adorned with gold and silver (Galloway 1).

As for my speculation on this wonderful poem God gave a message in form